Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Tina's story

Tina was a teenager when she started to notice features of her OCD. She would worry a lot that she might be responsible for hurting people by something she did or didn't do. She would spend a lot of time going over in her mind to check whether she had hurt anyone, or whether she had made a mistake which could lead to anyone getting hurt. Tina had a number of rituals which helped to calm her. One of these was to tap her fingers on things an even number of times - she would do this until it felt 'right'. Tina got to the point where she was spending up to six hours a day on her behaviours or going through things in her mind.

Frank's story

Frank would experience many different kinds of obsessions. When he was around people he loved he would have vivid intrusive images of doing harm to them. He thought of himself as a peaceful man so he found this extremely upsetting, and it scared him to think that he might act on the images. Frank would also become obsessed by the idea that he was contaminated by germs, particularly from shared items at work, and would feel unclean. He would spend over two hours each day washing his hands and arms until he was satisfied that he was clean.

What is OCD?

A diagnosis of OCD is given when specific symptoms are present most days for the last 2 successive weeks, and must cause significant distress or interference with other activities.

Obsessions

Obsessions are recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or impulses

These are experienced as intrusive and unwanted, and tend to provoke anxiety

The response to the obsessions is to try to suppress them, or neutralise them with some other thought or action

Compulsions

Compulsions are repetitive behaviours or mental actions that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession

The compulsions are aimed at reducing anxiety or mental distress

Obsessions & intrusive thoughts

Unintended and unwanted thoughts are a common feature of being human. Our brains are constantly thinking - we can't help it! Some of our thoughts are deliberate - for example if you lose your keys and deliberately think back to where you last had them. Other thoughts are automatic - for example you can allow your mind to 'free associate' to the following words: tiger, color, book. Just notice what other thoughts or images come to mind.

Obsessions in OCD tend to follow common themes. Some of the most common obsessions are:

Losing control

Contamination

Sexual

Impulse to harm self

By bodily fluids

Unwanted sexual thoughts or images

Impulse to harm someone else

By a chemical

Sexual obsessions about children

Impulse to shout something obscene

By germs or disease

Sexual obsessions about homosexuality

Harm

Religion

Perfectionism

Being responsible for something awful (e.g. fire, accident)

Worry about offending God

Need to know or remember

Fear about hurting others by not being careful enough

Concern about morality

Concern with exactness or preciseness

Human beings not only have thoughts, they also have thoughts-about-having-thoughts. In OCD it is often these thoughts-about-thoughts' that lead to a strong emotional reaction.

Compulsions

Compulsions are actions, rituals or behaviours that are done to relieve the anxiety or distress caused by the obsessions. Compulsions can can be overt or external (visible things we do in the outside world) or covert or internal (things we do in our own minds). They are usually done to prevent harm from happening to the self, or to someone close. The person with OCD might realise that their actions are not rational, but they feel compelled to carry them out anyway. Common compulsions include:

Checking

Washing & cleaning

Checking you did not harm your self or someone else

Washing hands excessively

Checking nothing terrible happened

Cleaning house or items obsessively

Checking you did not make a mistake

Excessive washing, bathing, grooming

Mental compulsions

Repeating

Praying to prevent harm

Repeating activities

'Cancelling' a bad word or thought with a 'good' one

Repeating body movements

Counting and ending on 'right' or 'good' number

Repeating a mental event

What keeps OCD going?

The content of everybody's OCD is different, but there are often similar processes going on underneath. A key part of understanding OCD is thinking about what the obsessions mean to the person with OCD. In the example below, because the person has an intrusive thought about stabbing someone they interpret it to mean "Having the thought means I'm likely to act on it" and "I'm dangerous".

How can I overcome my OCD?

1. Learn about intrusive thoughts

Intrusive thoughts are normal and everybody has them. We don't normally have many opportunities to talk about our intrusive thoughts with other people though, and we might keep them to ourselves for fear of what other people might think.

This page on Reddit is for people to post their intrusive thoughts. Their definition is:

[This is] A subreddit [place] for you to share all those intrusive, obsessive and recurring thoughts or ideas that race through your head throughout the day. Intrusive thoughts are random or recurring thoughts you have that make you want to do crazy things, such as "hit him with your car & jump off the building."

The content changes all the time. A selection of the intrusive thoughts from September 2014 included:

One of six people carrying a coffin into this funeral? Lets imagine a massive variety of ways you could drop it onto various mourners in attendance.

I wonder if I could beat up this teacher.

I am going through screening at the airport, I should say "I swear to Allah I am not a terrorist".

Whenever I have a thought that sounds like it could be dirty, I always clarify that it's not just in case anyone is reading my mind

2. Learn about thought suppression

One very common misconception is that we can control our thoughts. Put simply, we can't. Our brains are thinking machines - they spend a lot of time planning, judging, thinking, and worrying. Some of this we do deliberately, but much of it happens automatically.

3. Learn about typical cognitions and cognitive biases in OCD

A cognitive bias is sometimes called a thinking error or an unhelpful thinking style. Different cognitive biases are associated with different conditions. For example, depression is associated with a negativity bias (failure to see positive information) and panic is associated with catastrophic misinterpretation (worst outcomes seen as probable even if they are unlikely). OCD has been associated with a number of cognitions and cognitive biases:

Having a thought about an action is morally equivalent to performing the action

If a thought comes to mind, this means that this thought is likely to come true (this is sometimes called thought-action fusion)

If a thought comes repeatedly to mind, it must have some special meaning

Failing to prevent harm is the same as having caused the harm in the first place

One can and should exercise control over one's thoughts (beliefs about controllability of thoughts)

Inflated responsiblity - in OCD it is common to have an exaggerated belief in one's ability to produce or prevent negative outcomes

Perfectionism - the idea that there is a right way to do everything and that I must do it that way

Threat overestimation - a tendency to overestimate the likelihood or danger or harm

Intolerance of uncertainty - the belief that it is necessary to be certain and the one must be certain in order to cope

(Selected cognitive biases from Thought Suppression by Eric Rassin and the Obsessive-Compulsive Cognitions Working Group [1997])

4. Monitor your obsessions and compulsions

First you have to know what you are up against. Use this OCD diary to record situations (triggers) as well as your obsessions and compulsions.

5. Exposure and Response Prevention (EX/RP)

Exposure and Response Prevention is about exposing yourself to a situation that triggers your obsessions or compulsions (exposure), and then deliberately resisting the urge to carry out the compulsion that would normally relieve your anxiety (response prevention). It will be anxiety provoking to do this, and the anxiety will persist for some time to begin with, but it will decrease with time. In order to be successful with EX/RP you need to be consistent, and to have prolonged contact with your trigger until the feelings become manageable.

It is common to make a list of list of anxiety-provoking situations called a 'hierarchy'. Then you can start at the bottom, with the least anxiety-provoking, and work your way up.

Anxiety can set of the 'fight or flight response' or 'threat system'. This is an automatic reaction that human (and other animals) have to make then function at their best when they are threatened or in danger.

Exposure and Response Prevention is about exposing yourself to a situation that triggers your obsessions or compulsions (exposure), and then deliberately resisting the urge to carry out the compulsion that would normally relieve your anxiety (response prevention).

References and further reading

For more information about OCD the OCDUK.org website is a fantastic resource

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